Modernization of traditional agriculture entails increased participation of
the smallholder sector in the exchange economy. The achievement of this
participation requires an open trade regime, domestic policies that ensure
against market failures, and public policy that effectively permits use of new
production technology for sustained growth. To open up these opportunities to
small farmers, investment in rural infrastructure is essential, as is investment
in education that will enable these farmers to participate as entrepreneurs in
the growth process. In order to reach out to the landless and land-scarce
households, the growth process must stimulate employment and increased returns
to land. Non-traditional vegetables for export have a high labour content and
therefore promise to help foster rural modernization.

This study of non-traditional export crops and traditional smallholder
agriculture in Guatemala highlights the potentials and risks of export
orientation in smallholder agriculture for food security. The policy
implications of the report reach far beyond the study area in Central America.
The multidisciplinary team of IFPRI and the Institute of Nutrition of Central

America and Panama (INCAP) has gone far toward tracing the critical linkages
between economic development and nutritional improvement. Two lessons of the
study are of critical importance for policy. First, growth in staple food
production, stimulated jointly with diversification into non-traditional crops,
is necessary to actually capture the gains from specialization in typically
risky market environments. Second, joint operation and development of the health
and sanitation infrastructure in rural areas is required in order to translate
the growth effects into nutritional welfare effects for the poor.

Increasing foreign-exchange problems and deteriorating prices of traditional
export commodities are leading agricultural policy makers to seek
diversification in export-crop production. Export vegetables, which are
non-traditional crops, appear to be a promising option because of their high
labour intensity and expanding demand in industrialized countries. This study
deals with a case of export-vegetable production and its effects on food
production, employment, consumption, and nutrition in Guatemala.

Guatemala's agriculture has shifted away from food production to
agro-industrial crops. Food crops covered 58 per cent of the country's crop area
in 1950, compared with 37 per cent in 1979. Small farms decreased their basic
food-crop area from 97 per cent to 87 per cent in this period.

The focus of this study is the recent introduction of labour-intensive
production of vegetables for export in the traditional small-farm sector in the
Western Highlands - an area well known for its problems of poverty and
malnutrition. Besides considerable research on the "cash
cropping-nutrition" issue, the study provides both cross-sectional and
longitudinal analyses of effects. The research is based on two detailed rural
household surveys (400 families) that were undertaken in 1983 and 1985. The
sample is divided into two groups of households - those who produce the new
export vegetables (snow peas, broccoli, cauliflower, and parsley) under a
co-operative scheme, and those who do not. Differences in duration of
participation (one to seven years) in the export-crop scheme - the Cuatro Pinos
co-operative - characterize the subsample of the export crop growers.

The new export vegetables were rapidly adopted by the smallest farmers
(average 0.7 hectare). The model analysis in the study shows that in the early
phase of adoption, small farmers with somewhat larger holdings ( 1-2 hectares)
and households that had no reasonably well secured off-farm income source showed
a significantly higher probability of adoption. Access to good roads and
infrastructure also increased adoption rates.

Analysis with the help of a consistent farm household model based on the
survey data shows that with new export crops the shadow cost of maize produced
for own consumption increased drastically. The difference between the shadow
cost and the actual market price (0.29 quetzal in 1985) may be interpreted as an
"insurance premium" that farmers are willing to pay for the degree of
self-sufficiency they actually maintain.

Non-traditional export crops created local employment directly on farms and
indirectly through forward and backward linkages and multiplier effects
resulting from increased income spent locally. Combining farm-level employment
with the roughly estimated employment created through the input supply and
output marketing yields an overall 21 per cent increase in agricultural
employment in the six communities where the co-operative functions. Labour input
in agriculture increased by 45 per cent on the farms producing export
vegetables. About half of this increase is due to family labour and half to
hired labour. A substantial share of the incremental increase in family labour
is from women and children. As a consequence of increased on-farm employment,
off-farm work and interregional migration of members of export vegetable
producers' households are found to be reduced.

SCN news

The Sub-committee on Nutrition (SCN) of the UN Administrative Committee on
Coordination - established as the focal point for co-ordinating policies and
activities related to nutrition of the agencies of the United Nations system,
exchanging information and technical guidance, and acting dynamically to help
the United Nations to respond to nutritional problems - compiles and
disseminates information on nutrition reflecting the shared views of the
agencies concerned.

Its newsletter, SCN News, and the following documents are available free of
charge from the secretariat:

The American European Dietetic Association will hold its 13th annual
conference in Paris, 1-3 March 1990, under the theme "The View from
Here." The official language of the conference will be English. For more
information, contact: Robin Lee Kellerhals, R.D., 131, Av. Marechal Foch, 78400
Cathou, France.

IFT scientific status summaries

Copies of scientific status summaries by the Institute of Food Technologists'
expert panel on Food Safety and Nutrition are sent free of charge to IFT members
outside the United States. The latest summary published is Low-Calorie Foods.
The following are among the other titles still available:

In the second column on page 44 in the above article, the words
"lower" and "poorer" in lines 20 and 23 should be changed to
"higher" and "better" respectively. The sentences in
question should read: "A recent unpublished observation by A. Briend and
colleagues, however, indicates that breast-fed children who were about to be
weaned had a higher nutritional status than those who continued breast-feeding.
This means that cessation of breast-feeding is not the main cause of the better
nutritional state."

The above article was translated into English for the Bulletin before the
final version was published in Spanish. Subsequently, some adjustments were made
in the values recommended for several of the nutrients in the original Spanish
text. In addition, leucine was inadvertently omitted from the reference amino
acid patterns (table 2).

An erratum slip was issued with the article, but it did not include all of
these changes, and such isolated corrections often are not entered or are lost.
Therefore, tables 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7 are reprinted here in their entirety. Please
substitute these for the corresponding tables in the original article.

TABLE 1. Calculated energy requirements for Latin America

Age (years) and sex

Weight (kg)

Activity level

Requirement

Multiple of BMR

Kcal/Kg/day

kcal/day

0.3-3

-a

100

-a

3.1-5

16.5

95

1,550

5.1-7

20.5

88

1,800

7.1-10

male

27

78

2,100

female

27

67

1,800

10.1-12

male

34

1.75

64

2,200

female

36

1.64

54

1,950

12.1-14

male

42

1.68

55

2,350

female

43

1.59

46

2,000

14.1-18

male

45-55

light

1.62

54-45

2,450

moderate

1.80

58-52

2,750

high

2.10

67-61

3,200

female

40-50

light

1.55

48-42

2,000

moderate

1.65

51-45

2,150

high

1.80

56-49

2,350

18.1-65

male

60-75

light

1.55

41-37

2,600

moderate

1.80

48-43

3,050

high

2.10

55-50

3,500

female

45-60

light

1.55

41-35

1.950

moderate

1.65

44-37

2,100

high

1.80

48-41

2,300

Over 65

male

65

light

1.40

29

1,900

moderate

1.60

34

2,200

high

1.90

40

2,600

female

55

light

1.40

30

1,650

moderate

1.60

34

1,850

high

1.80

38

2,100

Calculated on basis of ref. 2.a. Depends on age.

TABLE 4. Daily vitamin needs

Age (years)

Weight (kg)

Energy requirement (kcal)

Vitamins (units per 1,000 kcal of dietary energy)

Vit. A (m g)

Vit. C (mg)

Folate (m g)

Thiamine (mg)

Riboflavin (mg)

Niacin (mg)

0.5-1

9

900

270

22

70

0.4

0.5

6

1.1-3

12

1,250

375

31

100

0.5

0.8

9

3.1-5

16.5

1,550

465

39

125

0.6

0.9

11

5.1-7

20.5

1,800

540

45

145

0.7

1.1

13

7.1-10

27

1,950

585

49

155

0.8

1.2

14

10.1-12

35

2,100

630

52

170

0.8

1.3

15

Male

12.1-14

42

2,350

705

59

190

0.9

1.4

16

14.1-18

50

2,750

825

69

220

1.1

1.6

19

18.1-65

68

3,050

915

76

245

1.2

1.8

21

over 65

65

2,200

660

55

175

0.9

1.3

15

Females

12.1-14

43

2,000

600

50

160

0.8

1.2

14

14.1-18

45

2,150

645

54

170

0.9

1.3

15

18.1-65

53

2,100

630

52

170

0.8

1.3

15

Over 65

55

1,850

555

46

150

0.7

1.1

13

Pregnancya

285

85

7

25

0.1

0.2

2

Lactationa

500

150

12

40

0.2

0.3

4

Sources: Refs. 2 and 3.a. Supplementary amounts.

TABLE 6. Daily mineral needs

Age (years)

Weight (kg)

Energy requirement (kcal)

Minerals (ma per 1,000 kcal of dietary energy)

Irona

Calcium

Zincb

H

I

L

H

L

0.5-1

9

900

4

6

12

450

5

9

1.1-3

12

1,250

6

8

17

625

8

12

3.1-5

16.5

1,550

7

10

21

775

9

16

5.1-7

20.5

1,800

8

12

24

900

11

18

7.1-10

27

1,950

9

13

26

975

12

20

10.1-12

35

2,100

9

14

28

1,050

13

21

Males

12.1-14

42

2,350

11

16

32

1175

14

24

14.1-18

50

2,750

12

18

37

1375

16

28

18.1-65

68

3.050

14

20

41

1525

18

30

over
65

65

2,200

10

15

30

1100

13

22

Females

12.1-14

43

2,000

9

13

27

1000

12

20

14.1-18

45

2,150

10

14

29

1075

13

22

18.1-65

53

2,100

9

14

28

1050

13

21

over 65

55

1,850

8

12

25

925

11

18

Pregnancyc

285

-d

140

2

3

Lactationc

500

205

3

5

Sources: Refs. 2, 3, and 9. a. H, 1, and L indicate diets with
high, intermediate, and low bioavailability of dietary iron respectively.b. H and L indicate diets with high and low bioavailability of dietary
zinc respectively.c. Supplementary amounts.d. Anaemia is
prevented by good iron reserves before pregnancy and a diet with highly
available (haem) iron. Otherwise, an iron supplement of 30 60 mg per day is
needed during the second and third trimesters.

TABLE 7. Nutrient intakes to meet needs of all family
members

Energy

Preschool: 0.6-0.8 kcal per millilitre of liquid food; approximately 2 kcal
per gram of solid food

Other ages: 1.4-2.5 kcal per gram in total diet

Carbohydrates

150-175 g; to provide 60%-70% of total energy

Protein

25-30 g (<50% of animal origin); to provide 10%-12% of total energy

Fat

22-28 g (including intrinsic fat in foods); to provide 20%-25% of total
energy

Saturated fat: <7-9 g (up to 1/3 of total fat); mono-unsaturated: 7-9 g;
polyunsaturated: 7-9 g (Ratio of saturated to unsaturated: <=1. Amount of
mono-unsaturated fat may be greater, provided ratio of saturated to unsaturated
is observed and limit on total fat calories is not exceeded)

Cholesterol not to exceed 100 ma. Not to exceed a total of 300 mg per day for
children

Fibre

>=8 g or >= 10g, depending on whether determined as water-soluble or as
crude fibre

Folates: 80µg A supplement of 200-300µg per day is often needed during
pregnancy

Thiamine: 0.4 mg

Riboflavin: 0.6 mg

Niacin: 7 mg (or equivalent: 60 mg of trypotophan = 1 mg of niacin)

Minerals

Iron: 5,7, or 14 mg for diets with high, intermediate, or low bioavailability
of iron respectively. A supplement of 30-60 mg per day is often needed during
pregnancy

Zinc: 6 - 10 mg; need varies depending on the source and on other components
in the diet (e.g. animal sources, phytates, etc.)

Calcium: 500 ma. More foods rich in calcium should be given to preschool
children and adolescents, and during pregnancy and lactation iodine: 100-200µg
per day in areas without goitre; 300 400µg per day in areas with goitre
(fortification of salt usually necessary)

Fluorine: 0.7-1.0 ma; sources of water with I ppm or more will meet this need

Sodium: Limit total ingestion of salt to 5 g per day (preferably less)

Values are per 1,000 kcal of dietary energy except as otherwise
indicated.